Concord pianist writes film score for Diablo Ballet anniversary

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Justin Levitt, a pianist/composer from Concord, has written a new film
score for the Diablo Ballet to celebrate its 24th anniversary. The new
film, “SPIRITUS,” will premiere this month at the Lesher Center for the
Arts in Walnut Creek.
(Janice DeJesus for Bay Area News Group)

WALNUT CREEK — The second Justin Levitt puts his fingers on a piano’s keys, he’s transported into a world that he said could only be described through emotion translated to music.

Since Levitt was a teen, the piano has taken him to places which, back then, he had only dreamed of. As an adult, those dreams have since come true: He’s played at Carnegie Hall, performed with world-renowned pianists, won composition awards and published books of his piano compositions.

He admits not knowing where to begin describing his latest feat: composing “Spiritus,” a film score for the Diablo Ballet’s 24th anniversary. The new film will premiere on March 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

“When I was first asked to be a part of this film I was beyond excited, but then I was struck with the heavy realization that I was entrusted with an amazing responsibility,” the Concord resident said. “This was beautiful and terrifying all at the same time. The first thing I had to do was understand the story and the emotions I had to evoke through music. With these thoughts and feelings in my heart I would sit at my Steinway and just play, searching and hoping that the music would reveal itself. This can be a challenging process that is beautifully frustrating, but it’s how I came up with a lot of the ideas in this piece.”

Eventually, once he had ideas and themes in mind, he would sit at his Mac and start to play around with different string sounds to see how they would make him feel as he heard them individually and in combinations. This is how he started to figure out the orchestration and the rest unfolded from there, he said.

“Film scores are never easy and always make me second-guess myself,” said Levitt, manager at Steinway & Sons in Walnut Creek. “At the same time they also stretch my creativity and force me to grow as a composer. As a result, the film gets the music I feel it deserves and I reach a new level of personal achievement.”

Levitt said he’s fortunate to be working again with Walter Yamazaki, the director and editor of this film. He and Yamazaki worked on two other films for the Diablo Ballet, including “Libera,” which just won an award at the U.S. Hollywood Golden Film Festival for music.

“The relationship between director and composer is a very special and complicated one,” Levitt said. “In the short amount of time we have to work on this film, Walter and I will talk, text and e-mail each other more than all of my other friends combined for the rest of the year. We are constantly bouncing ideas and concepts off of each other to ensure we are on the right path.”

Yamazaki said “Spiritus” is a collaborative film production, where the director, composer, dancers and artistic director all work together to create a dance film to tell a story that would otherwise be difficult to convey through live performance.

“The film has a multitude of meaning embedded within the visual storytelling, and if I am to reveal a few themes, it is about the cycle of birth and rebirth in the fleeting passage of time, or the process of discovering who we are,” said Yamazaki. “It is also about the endless pursuit of the intangibles that sparks the burning need to accomplish in life.”

The process started with a difficult but fundamental question about who we are. To create this film, it was necessary for Yamazaki, the dancers, choreographers, and Levitt, the composer, “to dig deep into ourselves to attempt to tackle this question head-on in the process of creation,” Yamazaki said.

The creative process was often challenging; it was during those times that Levitt said he was grateful for loved ones who would listen and provide him with the support and encouragement he needed to continue on with confidence and hope restored.

“A lot of these personal feelings are mirrored in the story we are telling in Spiritus,” Levitt said.

While this piece is not about sorrow and anguish, it does speak to the heart of the dancer and, at times, what they have to go through, sacrifice and overcome to dance, he said.

In the making of “Libera” last year, the most powerful answer Yamazaki said he received from one of the dancers when asked the reason why they dance was: “because it is the truest expression of who I am as a person.” This process of self-discovery was the inspiration to “Spiritus,” Yamazaki said.

Ultimately, he said the process of creating the original score with Levitt was extremely rewarding and evolutionary.

“We went through a series of discoveries, encountering our self-limitations, and finding ways to break through them together,” Yamazaki said. “The process allowed the music and the storytelling to evolve as we went forward. The choreography crafted by each dancer was based on the idea of knowing who you are; it was definitely a process that challenged the awareness of our identity and expression of that discovery.”

Lauren Jonas, artistic director of the Diablo Ballet, has been an inspiration and incredibly supportive since the beginning, Levitt said.

“These films allow our audiences and stakeholders to become familiar with Diablo Ballet on an intimate level,” Jonas said. “It’s important for the ballet to allow a platform for them to know what the dancers have gone through to get to where they are today. And what an incredibly beautiful way to provide such a message.”

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